For most of us, how the opposite sex experiences an orgasm is one of life’s great mysteries.

And as great as our own side of the coin can be, it’s hard not to wonder if the other side could be having it even better.

We can’t have it both ways (without surgery) to find out, but thankfully, scientists are all over this conundrum.

As the boys from AsapSCIENCE explain in the video below, there are a bunch of different factors that can contribute to how we define “better” in the male vs. female orgasm debate.

Whilewomen tend to have much longer orgasms of around 20 seconds or more, most men get just 3 to 10 seconds. But is longer better when you don’t get to experience it as often?

Studies have shown that while the average man gets to experience his 3-10 seconds in 95 percent of sexual encounters, for women, this statistic drops to 69 percent of encounters.

So the question is, would you rather have a shorter orgasm if it means you’re almost guaranteed to actually get it, or are some things worth the wait?

If you think the solution is as simple as that, for shame – we’re talking about orgasms here, of course it’s not that simple. There’s something else we have to take into account – the kind of sex you’re having.

As AsapSCIENCE explains, a study investigating orgasms experienced by a group of American participants aged 21 to 26 found that while gay and straight men experienced a similar rate of orgasm, this rate changed dramatically for women depending on their sexual orientation.

The study found that, on average, the lesbians experienced around 12 percent more orgasms than straight women, with 25 percent saying they climaxed during every sexual encounter, and almost half saying they experienced an orgasm more than 75 percent of the time.

And here’s the kicker for all those non-lesbians out there: not only did they experience a higher frequency of orgasms when compared to their straight counterparts, they also had longer sexual encounters, with an average of 30 to 45 minutes vs. 15 to 35 minutes.

These longer encounters could explain the higher frequency of orgasms, but as AsapSCIENCE explains, research also suggests that genetics could be involved.